Disney World AP News: Abysmal Availability, Magnet & More Discounts
It’s been a roller coaster couple of months for Walt Disney World Annual Passholders. Ongoing frustrations coupled with just enough nuggets of good news so as to not alienate Disney’s most loyal guests completely. There story here is much of the same, as we’re back with the latest on new discounts & an AP magnet, plus Park Pass availability–or lack thereof. On that final note, we discuss should you cancel your Annual Pass?!
Let’s begin with discounts for Walt Disney World Annual Passholders, recapping what was previously offered. Through September 30, 2020, Annual Passholders Can Save Up to 40% on Walt Disney World Hotels. These are some of the lowest prices we’ve seen on hotels–especially Deluxe & Villa Resorts–in a long time, and that actually presents the best “use case” for an Annual Pass right now.
If you’re not an AP or Florida resident and are thinking about a trip to Walt Disney World, you will pay full price on a hotel if booking directly through Walt Disney World. If you’re an AP trying to access the parks without a hotel stay, you’ll have limited options for Disney Park Pass reservations. If you’re an Annual Passholder booking an hotel stay, that’s the sweet spot–you’ll get a great hotel deal and access to virtually unlimited Park Pass availability!
Continuing with the deals, Walt Disney World released a 30% off discount on merchandise purchases at most Walt Disney World stores for Annual Passholders with only limited exclusions. Normally, Walt Disney World Annual Passholders receive a 20% off merchandise discount as part of AP perks, so this amounts to an extra 10% off.
This 30% off is currently valid through August 14, 2020, but we would be more surprised if it’s not extended than if it is extended. If anything, we expect more attempts to entice Annual Passholders to spend money while in the parks. Offering 20% off the 2020 Taste of EPCOT Food & Wine Festival booths seems logical given the high menu prices (and the fact that the first wave of bloggers/vloggers/etc. is now over).
The latest discount is that Walt Disney World Annual Passholders can receive 30% off select merchandise purchased on ShopDisney.com now through August 14, 2020. Basically, the same deal as above, but for those who can’t get to Walt Disney World right now.
A couple of things worth noting here. First, there are a lot of exclusions (see above). So many that we’re not typing them out here. Notable ones include face masks, art, collectibles, books, games, movies, Mandalorian items (no Baby Yoda?!), and skateboard decks, among many other things. There are also no discounts on Precious Moments, which is weird because I feel like they should be paying us to take that nightmare fuel.
Second, it appears that some of those exclusions are not accurate and also that free shipping and other discounts do stack with the AP code. We were able to use the SHIPMAGIC and DRVCMEMBER codes after signing in with linked accounts and using the AP30OFF code.
We say “appears” because this worked when we tested it in our cart, but we don’t actually want to buy any merchandise, so we didn’t complete the order. (When I purchase ten Precious Moments figures, I prefer to do so in person so I can see the looks of terror and judgment in the Cast Member’s eyes.) It might error out when hitting submit. We’d love to hear your successes/failures on this front.
Next, as a special “welcome back” surprise, Walt Disney World Annual Passholders will be mailed a Tinker Bell magnet later this month. Our assumption here is that this will be sent out after August 11 to guests with active APs.
Interestingly, no word on the Flower & Garden AP magnets, which are not being distributed in Epcot. As a reminder, the Donald Duck with Spike the Bee magnet was to be available from March 4 until April 19, while the Orange Bird magnet was to be offered from April 20 until June 1. There’s no way Walt Disney World ran out of the first magnet and there are presumably boxes of the Orange Bird one just sitting somewhere backstage. Maybe Disney will get in the eBay pirate game, hawking them for $80 each. Orange Bird could save Disney’s fourth quarter!
Next up, Disney Park Pass availability for Annual Passholders. We’ve been monitoring this over the last month-plus, and things have not been looking good. There have been a couple of “availability dumps” to Annual Passholders, but after that inventory has been exhausted, it’s back to slim pickings aside from random cancellations.
As of this morning, the earliest an Annual Passholder without a resort reservation could book a visit to Epcot is August 18, 2020. The earliest possible visit to Animal Kingdom is August 25, 2020. Magic Kingdom isn’t an option until August 31, 2020. The earliest visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios wouldn’t be until September 8, 2020.
This is despite no shortage of same-day Disney Park Pass availability for resort guests and theme park ticket holders for literally every single day between now and September 2021. There’s also no shortage of “available space” in the parks–only Disney’s Hollywood Studios is coming close to hitting its reduced capacity cap. The parks are still ghost towns, with some weekends being maybe 2/10 in terms of crowds. Most weekdays are not even 1/10.
This paradoxical phenomenon has been occurring because there are three separate “buckets” for Disney Park Pass reservations, and only the Annual Passholder bucket has had any degree of serious demand. Inventory is dynamic within each bucket, which means that a cancellation by an AP results in a space opening up (having a strong refresh game can yield favorable results). However, inventory is not regularly reallocated among the three buckets. Aside from a couple of one-off dumps of availability, capacity has not been shifted around.
It makes complete sense that Walt Disney World would allocate plenty of Park Pass inventory to resort guests and ticket holders. Those guests absolutely should be prioritized above Annual Passholders–I don’t think anyone seriously disputes this.
Statistically speaking, guests on vacation spend more than in-state Annual Passholders. On the quarterly earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek once again reiterated this. However, Chapek also stated that out of state travelers are making up a lower percentage of guests than expected (~50%) whereas Floridians are making up a higher percentage (~50%) of all guests in the parks on any given day.
Chapek indicated that vacation package and resort cancellations have been higher than anticipated and utilization of the parks has been lower than expected. Finally, he stated that despite all of this, in-park spending has been very strong due to pent-up demand (and, let’s be honest, eBay pirates).
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at all of this and think the easy fix is last-minute reallocations of Disney Park Pass availability to APs. Yes, they spend less on average than tourists, but the latter group is cancelling trips. Moreover, park utilization is low and in-park spending is high. The very obvious solution is to fill in that surplus space with APs, who will at least spend something. Like seats on an airplane, park capacity is perishable–if it goes unfilled, it’s lost. Something is better than nothing.
Even before the earnings call confirmed all of this, we’ve been discussing it for weeks, stressing patience to Annual Passholders. Our assumption is that, eventually, Walt Disney World will figure things out and start reallocating surplus Park Pass availability to the Annual Passholder bucket around 24-48 hours before the date in question on a rolling basis.
It’s absolutely confounding that this has not yet happened. Either Walt Disney World is doing this deliberately to project the appearance to tourists that they will never have any troubles booking Park Pass (unlikely) or the IT infrastructure for the Disney Park Pass system was not built for dynamically reallocating inventory in this manner (that’s our bet!). Still, why not more regular “availability dumps” like we saw a couple weeks ago?
This brings us to the question of whether you should cancel your Walt Disney World Annual Pass. Our past advice has been “wait and see” as there was no real urgency to cancel unless you already knew the near-term guest experience was not for you.
However, the clock is ticking. Annual Passholders only have through August 11, 2020 to cancel their passes by calling V.I.PASSHOLDER Support. We’re still holding out a sliver of hope that Walt Disney World will “fix” the Park Pass inventory system, but maybe they don’t see a problem? Perhaps they don’t care? Maybe there is no easy solution?
Ultimately, whether you cancel or not is obviously a personal decision. If you’re an out of state AP who always books a hotel stay, the status quo is pretty swell for you! If you’re a Floridian who never books a room…this is beyond frustrating.
Not resolving this problem is also a self-defeating move for Walt Disney World. While this whole reopening process began with Walt Disney World finding new and unique ways of alienating virtually every demographic of guests and fans, they’ve mostly rectified and turned things around with other guests.
However, Disney continues to alienate, discourage, and take for granted the local Annual Passholder population. This makes absolutely zero sense at a time when the parks, by Disney’s own admission, are leaning heavily on Floridians. That’s unlikely to change in the next couple of years, so let’s hope Disney fixes this in the near future. A Tinker Bell magnet is nice, but it’s insufficient in nullifying the infuriating experiences of attempting to book park reservations, obtain partial refunds, etc. (Okay, maybe the Precious Moments discount makes things okay!)
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you an Annual Passholder? Thoughts on the merchandise and resort discounts? What’s your take on the Park Pass fiasco? Will you be cancelling your Annual Pass due to the lack of Park Pass availability? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
From my perspective Disney is going down the tubes. They can’t keep any commitments and they are charging more for less. How could anyone want to go to WDW under these circumstances. Everyone should wait until next year and see if they will perform as they did before Covid 19. If they can’t I would rather try out a trip to another country than spend the thousands I would spend at WDW. Why not go to Ireland or Australia where it is reasonable and the people love Americans.
I was told if you paid in full to renew there basing the refund from the day they first reopen until the day you pass expires to figure out how much you get back. Personally I think if you have not used you pass at all you should get you money back in full. I live out of state and new online end of January so i have not been able to use my pass. But something is better than nothing until i can go back to the park, then i will by a new pass. It does take a while to get the refund. S mid September at the earliest.
Has WDW changed the availability calendar ? Looking today, (https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/availability-calendar/), I no longer see categories. This is the only reference: “Check to see if your desired date and park is currently available before purchasing your ticket, Annual Pass or package.”. Very curious.
We are out of state passholders. Our passes are up for renewal 9/10 and I really think we’re going to let them expire. It would cost us around $3300 to renew our 3 platinum passes and I just can’t justify that with all of the concessions we’ve had to make as passholders. No fireworks, parades, shows, park hopping and now the parks will only be open around half the hours they used to be. Sure the discount on rooms is nice but I still don’t feel like that is enough justification for us to spend that kind of money to renew. Especially when 5 years ago when we first got passes they were about half the cost they are now and that was with all the bells and whistles. The fact that they have not offered passholders discounted passes when we are the only ones spending money in the parks is beyond me. Friends of ours went in July and they said every time they walked up to a register to pay for something, almost every person in line was getting out their passholder card for their discount. Disney said themselves that cancellations are higher then expected. A lot of people are terrified to go to Florida right now, plus so many states require you quarantine when you come home which makes it impossible for some to even go there. Many people are still out of work and I foresee that getting worse long before it gets better. Especially with so many places turning to virtual learning and parents needing to quit their jobs to teach their kids. Plus lets face it they don’t make the most money on the ticket sales and passes themselves, they make it with people spending in the parks. We spent more on food and merchandise last visit then we did for travel expenses and our hotel stay which was on property. I have 2 concerns right now, we bite the bullet and renew and then they lower the prices for an AP or we let them expire and they don’t start selling new AP’s for a significant period of time. It’s just another bummer in what’s been a huge crap show of a year.
I think I’ll go get my Disney fix by admiring all my Precious Moments.
I AM A WDW passholder, I don’t know if I should cancel my pass or not. What refund will I get.
Can someone please answer this question?
I also will not book a trip until they allow me to buy my Florida Annual Passholders tickets and I will stay on property. Not sure why they won’t sell these yet. Hopefully sooner than later.
I have spoken to countless people on the phone zero indication as to when they will sale the passes. I have canceled all my trips for the rest of the year because I refuse to go without my annual pass which I can not renew. I spoke to someone today and it sounded as if they will not sell them this year.
We are out of state AP holders so we either utilize our DVC points or the AP hotel discount when we travel to WDW. Meaning right now there are a ton of sweet deals to entice us.
If I was a local, I would feel pretty hurt by all of this. I don’t understand why Disney is mailing out these cheap looking Tinker Bell magnets. I really think they should have sent out TWO of the Flower Garden AP magnets. I wouldn’t be surprised if they start selling these magnets instead.
By the way – anybody else see that Disney has shortened park hours starting in September?
Very Frustrated that a) we don’t know the formula for what we’d be getting back should we decide to cancel our pass. It’s bad business that we fork over $1200 for a pass and have zero clue of how our refund will be calculated before having to make the decision. B) Also very frustrated that AP sales have been totally put on hold and there is no hint of when they may go on sale again.
I am a local AP holder, platinum pass… We renewed our passes just before disney announced the parks were closing, ( about 1-2 weeks before) I dont like the reservation system at all, I did however use one of my 3 measly pass days to get Christmas day, that leaves me with 2. I’d like thanksgiving day also, BUT I need to get into Epcot for something for my ill son, and We wanted to also go to Hollywood studios and at the time we couldnt get in there till Sept 1, so thats when we are going there. It is so frustrating to see all the open spots for people that have hotel reservations and are out of staters. I am NOT planning on BUYING any more passes just to get in. We went and got Universal annual passes for HALF the price of Disney passes, and we go there a couple times a week, Its not Disney, but its fun anyways and we like to get out and do things. I guess the money I would have spent at Disney World is going to Universal this fall , because I seem to only be able to get a reservation for ever other week or so. Since we live 15 minutes away, it isnt worth it for us to rent a room , even at 40 percent off or less for the not so fancy rooms.
OMG – I thought I was the only one who hated Precious Moments figurines. Thank you!
Aww, I love Precious Moments 🙂
If you look close in, the Swan has rates about the same as the Pop Century for AP holders, even with their resort fees. For the next 3 weeks, I see the Swan at $111/night + $30 resort fees vs. 127.17 for the Pop. From what I understand, you still have access to the Disney Resort Guest pool of Park Pass reservations.
We are APs from Georgia and we are keeping our passes for now. We are waiting on the fall AP hotel discounts to come out so we can plan for fall break and the end of the year. Truly, The Disney Bubble is one of the only places I feel safe traveling right now and we can travel there via car to minimize exposure. We have no issue with masking, and welcome the rule. For us, the reduced crowds makes the experience feel VIP and very “worth it” despite the reduced offerings.
If anyone is booked for an upcoming trip at a closed hotel, I would recommend calling them – they have contingency plans for moving but you have to call – it won’t show on your online reservation. We called for our July trip and and were moved from Caribbean Beach to a 1 BR Villa at Saratoga Springs for the same price as our original booking. This was another bit of pixie dust that made our recent trip feel extra special. I realize we are very fortunate, and we did not take for granted the opportunity to have a small escape and savor the Disney Magic right now.
Hi! Any thoughts/speculations on when they will start to sale annual passes again? Not having the option to buy is preventing me from planning a trip.
It appears that there are indeed FOUR buckets for Park Passes. Hotel Guests, Ticket Holders, Local APs, and non-Local APs. I called my brother in Colorado who is a WDW passholder, and he says that he has wide-open availability to book a Park Pass. This makes sense as Bob Chapek said this week that locals are 50% of the visitors to the parks at this time, implying that they don’t want that number to increase. (WDW will not be Disneyland, ruled by passholders, says he!) Unfortunately, I don’t have a way to determine exactly what Disney thinks is a “local” (are Georgia and Alabama passholders locals?), and may include the entire East Coast. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help Florida locals (most/all WDW bloggers?) With Silver passes opening up this weekend, the availability will only become worse for us.
This isn’t true. I’m a Texas AP holder and I absolutely do not see any availability the first two weeks of August. Just like Tom’s screen shot in his post, mine looks exactly the same. In fact, we are here now staying off property. The only way for me to add a 4th park day was to book a one night stay at Pop Century using the discount, which was pretty significant (I think we paid more for snacks at the Food and Wine festival than we did for the room at Pop). We got the offsite room for so cheap that the extra cost for the one night stay at Pop wasn’t so bad. We thought of it as a cheaper way to do a ‘hard ticket’ event since the cost of the room was not much more than one hard ticket – much cheaper than buying 4. Since the parks aren’t as packed, we saw it about as empty as our Animal Kingdom hard ticket event back in early March before the shutdown, so it was a win for us.
I really wish there was a designation bucket for out of state AP’s because it sucks not being able to pre-plan a trip. We can’t just pop over for a quick visit. Yes, it does take time for us to get there and we need to know we can get in. The room discount they are offering helps, but it comes nowhere close to how much we save staying off site. Not to mention we rented a 2 bedroom/2 bath suite close to Disney property for next to nothing. The extra room certainly helps and entices us more.
Local APs may be complaining, but it’s even worse for us out of State APs
It’s been a long day, and yet you had me laughing hysterically from the Precious Moments comments. I needed those laughs.
Thank you!
Remember a couple months ago when APs were told that they’d be sent Flower & Garden magnets? (Sorry that this link goes off-site Tom. I didn’t see DTB in the Google results. If you have an article on this, please feel free to change the link.)
https://wdwnt.com/2020/06/annual-passholders-to-receive-exclusive-magnet-this-summer-by-mail/
This passholder hasn’t rec’d them, nor have any passholders that I know.
Anyone get these?
I don’t see where you are seeing that they specifically said “Flower & Garden magnets”. That site used the F&G magnets in their article, but Disney never said that in their communication. It said “an exclusive magnet” and mentioned they were sprinkling pixie dust so probably referring to the announcing Tinker Bell ones
That isn’t an official WDW site. Just a fan site.
I realize that WDWNT is a fan site – just like this one. However, the Flower & Garden magnet announcement was covered by a lot of reputable fan sites.
Also, the passholder VIP line rep told me me that we’d get them way back when I called to make the selection to extend our AP period, as opposed to letting it run out at its normal expiration. I don’t think they lied intentionally.
We know that the magnets had already been produced because the shutdown started right around the time they’d be handing them out. I hope they didn’t dump those magnets in a landfill. That would be the equivalent of a lot of evil plastic straws.
I can speak to the Discount code stacking. I placed an order on ShopDisney this afternoon and used the D23 code, free shipping code, and AP code. It took all three in the single purchase. As a Missouri resident, I won’t likely get to Disney for a while, so finally being able to get the AP discount is amazing!